Twitter - Getting Started

Edit 0 1 …
Getting Started

Don't be shy
  • don't lock your account
  • use your real name
  • as soon as possible, replace the Twitter egg avatar with your photo or cartoon.
  • don't use someone else's photo!
  • complete and refine your bio
  • complete the geographical location
Keep it clean

  • your child or Grannie may be reading
Religion, Politics, Sex
  • If you must talk about them, consider using a separate account
On Twitter you are judged by who you follow and who follows you.
-
  • Review your followers: unfollow and block as necessary.
  • Follow leaders in your field of interest. Follow who they follow.
  • Ask people you trust who you should follow.
  • Tweet that you're a newbie and ask for followers.
Why follow?
  • Following a person allows them to Direct Message (DM) (private message) you
  • Following people means that you receive all tweets from those people

Mentioning

Hashtags! The power of Twitter will only be revealed when you understand/use them.
  • Discover hashtags by watching what others use.
  • There is no official register of hashtags.
  • Some hashtags have discussion hours where voted-on topics are discussed.
  • If someone is abusing a hashtag, use Twitter to report them for spam.
  • Do not hashtag every word pointlessly.
  • Only use relevant hashtags
  • Don't sacrifice message clarity for hashtag number
Twitter is NOT enough. You need an interface app to make it usable.
  • Use Tweetdeck or Hootsuite as the interface to Twitter.
Retweet anything you find interesting to make it more visible.
  • Retweeting does not imply endorsement but express yr doubts if necessary.
  • Retweet many more posts than you originate.
Use Twitter to share.
  • Use Twitter to invite comments on your blog
  • Use Twitter to tell others about interesting blog posts of others
  • Make your Twitter ID very visible on your blog
  • Use Twitter to share interesting web articles
Take extra care when authorising other services to use your Twitter account
  • Some services are scams, will take over your account and spam others
  • Some services will lock out your account
  • If you revealed your password, some services will go phishing
  • regularly review your Twitter profile and remove unused services
The 140 character limitation of tweets raises the quality of messages.
  • Get to the point. Do not waffle.
  • Learn abbreviations and use them.
  • Less is often more but be sensitive to ambiguity
  • Be aware that humour can very easily be misunderstood
Requests for help
  • Do you talk too much?
  • Do you listen enough?
  • Support anyone starting out on Twitter
  • Support anyone requesting help
  • Point newbies to this guide
Consider your audience
  • Twitter = global conversations
  • If you mean national, don't talk global
  • Use at least UTC and 24hr clock for global meetings
  • Understand that UTC is the global time reference, not EST
  • Understand that UTC is a fixed reference & does not change with "daylight savings"
  • What is your current timezone in terms of UTC?
  • Understand that there are more than 10 ESTs in the world and they're all different
  • Be sensitive: some terms are meaningless outside your country
  • Be sensitive: some abbreviations may not translate across national boundaries